Iron Game
Veteran
Q: Is there any truth behind the headlines about an epidemic of teen growth hormone use?
A: The recent headlines about human growth hormone (hGH) use are a perfect example of the sensationalism that pervades today’s journalism. The fact is, the consistently trusted surveys of teenage drug usage (MonitoringtheFuture.org) show that teen use of anabolic steroids has substantially fallen in recent years. Only about 1.5 percent of teens now report ever using steroids. If steroid use has dropped that low, why would hGH use be skyrocketing? The claim that 11 percent of all teens— and a whopping 15 percent of African-American teens— are using a less popular, less available and enormously more expensive physical enhancement drug is silly. But how did ridiculous headlines such as “Dangerous Use of Growth Hormone Surges among U.S. Teens” get reported?
Let’s imagine a reporter; we’ll call him Dick. Dick works for a newspaper. The newspaper, like most printed periodicals, is struggling. Dick looks for headlines to boost sales and knows that “children in peril” steroid stories are pure gold. So Dick is ecstatic when he gets a press release about a new teen drug survey, skims it for the most alarmist content, and finds data that suggest an upsurge in teen hGH use. Not quite steroids, but close enough.
Dick reaches out to the folks behind the survey— the Partnership for Drug-Free Kids. Interested in grabbing the attention of American parents, the group’s president is happy to talk with Dick about the survey’s hGH data, but struggles to explain the inconsistency with the body of existing research. So he admits that “it’s doubtful that all of the teens who reported having used synthetic hGH actually obtained [real] growth hormone.” He switches the topic from actual hGH to the“proliferation of commercially available products that are marketed saying they contain synthetic hGH, or promote the natural production of hGH within the body.” In other words: certain dietary supplements. When Dick calls the anti-doping authorities for a quote, they also shift the focus to the problem of mislabeled dietary supplements that may fool teens into thinking they are taking actual hGH when they aren’t. They call for tighter regulations on the dietary supplement market. Of course, if Dick did his homework and called neutral experts in the field, he’d hear more serious skepticism of the hGH figures. Maybe Dick just neglects to call them, or maybe he calls them but conveniently runs out of word space for their quotes.
Unless Dick is stupid, he will realize that his original headline about an epidemic of teen hGH use would not fit a story with very little if any hGH. But by now he’s already invested in it, he’s working with a very tight deadline (he wants to “break the story”), and he knows his editors will love it. He assumes the whole thing will be forgotten tomorrow, but will sell papers today. So Dick runs the misleading headline, and buries the stuff about dietary supplements deep in the piece (where few people will read it).
No sooner does his story hit the stands and appear online than other news outlets trip over themselves to quickly get the story out. Some are even lazier than Dick, and more unscrupulous; they don’t bother to print anything about dietary supplements and inflated numbers. In a blind frenzy, local TV stations begin looking for hGH-using teens to put on camera (with hidden identities). They reach out to me, hoping to find a teen I’ve defended for possession of hGH, and are frustrated to learn that I’ve never even been contacted regarding a teen arrested for hGH. So ultimately, the story blows over, uncorroborated, and Dick moves on to a new “sky is falling” story. The public remembers only the headlines, even though the headlines were misleading at best.
What’s the problem? Here’s my concern. If this sort of nonsense is trotted out as truth about hGH, how reliable is the stuff we read about far more significant issues of world affairs, economics, science, medicine or nutrition? Certainly, there are conscientious journalists and ethical editors who serve a great public service by breaking stories about real news. But there are also plenty of lazy hacks, all too eager to run a sensationalistic headline no matter how unsupported or bogus. Journalism should be an honorable trade. Please stop the nonsense, reporters of America. Don’t be a Dick.
Rick Collins, JD, CSCS [www.rickcollins.com] is the lawyer that members of the bodybuilding community and nutritional supplement industry turn to when they need legal help or representation. [© Rick Collins, 2017. All rights reserved. For informational purposes only, not to be construed as legal or medical advice.]
A: The recent headlines about human growth hormone (hGH) use are a perfect example of the sensationalism that pervades today’s journalism. The fact is, the consistently trusted surveys of teenage drug usage (MonitoringtheFuture.org) show that teen use of anabolic steroids has substantially fallen in recent years. Only about 1.5 percent of teens now report ever using steroids. If steroid use has dropped that low, why would hGH use be skyrocketing? The claim that 11 percent of all teens— and a whopping 15 percent of African-American teens— are using a less popular, less available and enormously more expensive physical enhancement drug is silly. But how did ridiculous headlines such as “Dangerous Use of Growth Hormone Surges among U.S. Teens” get reported?
Let’s imagine a reporter; we’ll call him Dick. Dick works for a newspaper. The newspaper, like most printed periodicals, is struggling. Dick looks for headlines to boost sales and knows that “children in peril” steroid stories are pure gold. So Dick is ecstatic when he gets a press release about a new teen drug survey, skims it for the most alarmist content, and finds data that suggest an upsurge in teen hGH use. Not quite steroids, but close enough.
Dick reaches out to the folks behind the survey— the Partnership for Drug-Free Kids. Interested in grabbing the attention of American parents, the group’s president is happy to talk with Dick about the survey’s hGH data, but struggles to explain the inconsistency with the body of existing research. So he admits that “it’s doubtful that all of the teens who reported having used synthetic hGH actually obtained [real] growth hormone.” He switches the topic from actual hGH to the“proliferation of commercially available products that are marketed saying they contain synthetic hGH, or promote the natural production of hGH within the body.” In other words: certain dietary supplements. When Dick calls the anti-doping authorities for a quote, they also shift the focus to the problem of mislabeled dietary supplements that may fool teens into thinking they are taking actual hGH when they aren’t. They call for tighter regulations on the dietary supplement market. Of course, if Dick did his homework and called neutral experts in the field, he’d hear more serious skepticism of the hGH figures. Maybe Dick just neglects to call them, or maybe he calls them but conveniently runs out of word space for their quotes.
Unless Dick is stupid, he will realize that his original headline about an epidemic of teen hGH use would not fit a story with very little if any hGH. But by now he’s already invested in it, he’s working with a very tight deadline (he wants to “break the story”), and he knows his editors will love it. He assumes the whole thing will be forgotten tomorrow, but will sell papers today. So Dick runs the misleading headline, and buries the stuff about dietary supplements deep in the piece (where few people will read it).
No sooner does his story hit the stands and appear online than other news outlets trip over themselves to quickly get the story out. Some are even lazier than Dick, and more unscrupulous; they don’t bother to print anything about dietary supplements and inflated numbers. In a blind frenzy, local TV stations begin looking for hGH-using teens to put on camera (with hidden identities). They reach out to me, hoping to find a teen I’ve defended for possession of hGH, and are frustrated to learn that I’ve never even been contacted regarding a teen arrested for hGH. So ultimately, the story blows over, uncorroborated, and Dick moves on to a new “sky is falling” story. The public remembers only the headlines, even though the headlines were misleading at best.
What’s the problem? Here’s my concern. If this sort of nonsense is trotted out as truth about hGH, how reliable is the stuff we read about far more significant issues of world affairs, economics, science, medicine or nutrition? Certainly, there are conscientious journalists and ethical editors who serve a great public service by breaking stories about real news. But there are also plenty of lazy hacks, all too eager to run a sensationalistic headline no matter how unsupported or bogus. Journalism should be an honorable trade. Please stop the nonsense, reporters of America. Don’t be a Dick.
Rick Collins, JD, CSCS [www.rickcollins.com] is the lawyer that members of the bodybuilding community and nutritional supplement industry turn to when they need legal help or representation. [© Rick Collins, 2017. All rights reserved. For informational purposes only, not to be construed as legal or medical advice.]
